I found this link yesterday to a short tutorial on squaring up fabric. No one likes to square up fabric or blocks but its the best thing a quilter can do to make the whole process easier. Here is the link:

Squaring up fabric

I decided to Google my name & my business name just to see what pops up & to see if it was easy for my customers to find me and my webpage. I did find my website but was surprised to find a whole area of older quilt photos in Google+. I completely forgot that I had started sharing photos there!  I also found my name linked with an ancestry site label “mother of 8” !!!  No, no that is not me. I found a couple obits with my name, a little shocking to see my name in an obit, again, not this Nancy Hughson.

Its amazing how much technology has changed our way of life. I use search engines all the time to find facts, look up businesses,  look for quilt photos, garden info  and quilt patterns. Its also a little shocking how much info is out there about each of us. Take a look at your own name & see what you find.

I know this would have been very helpful to me years before I quilted for others. My first quilter lived in northern Michigan and I was unaware of any around the local area. If I had the ability then to search for a quilter I would have probably found many locally, where they were located, what their interests are and maybe even a blog of follow.

Today I’m looking for how to make a ‘feather stitch’ for my embroidery project. I simply put ’embroidery feather stitch’ in the search area and got a ton of hits.  I am amazed how many people have made short videos that will save me a lot of time looking around in all of my books.

Have fun today, get online and search yourself, your friends and your quilter. Its a lot of fun and you’ll be amazed how much you can find online. Its -3 this morning so I’m staying in to work but will also be working on a wooly project in between.

Stay warm!

This is one of the projects I’m working on in my off hours. Its a Wooly BOM that I purchased at the AQS Grand Rapids show by Carried Away Designs. I have one completed block and 4 others in the first stage of   sewing down the appliqué.  This is my first time doing Wooly appliqué. So far I think I like it. There are 2 more months to arrive. It will be a small wallhanging when finished. This is practice before I begin on the Sue Spargo Cuppa project.

Kelly’s Red Riding Hood quilt with Daisy Delight allover by Hermione Agee.

White thread & Hobbs 80/20 batting. Check out the cute backing fabric.

Pam & Kelly got busy finishing up some quilts so I have more photos to share of their work.

First is Kelly’s Owl quilt. The quilting design is Who’s in the Woods by Ann Bright, Hobbs 80/20 batting & a cute Owl print backing.

Pam make a log cabin with jelly roll strips. The quilt design is Gingersnap by Autumn Moon, both have lime green thread, Hobbs 80/20 batting & she has a pretty white on white backing fabric.

This is Pam’s baby quilt. She cleverly combined Missouri Star Quilting pattern for big star and a charm pack. The back is Minky, and quilting design is Stars & Loops by Linda Taylor. Notice the stars falling in the yellow between blue points near the bottom? I just noticed that.

Pam’s daughter Kelly made this braid just in time for Valentines. Pam & Kelly use the binding tool sold at Missouri Star and love it for braids!  The backing is Minky, the quilting design is PS I Love You by Lisa Calle, pink thread and Hobbs 80/20 batting.

Its Super Bowl Sunday and since I pulled something in my derriere, I’m doing a lot of standing & quilting today. I’m not much for football so trying to make the best of the situation. At least I can get some work in while standing. I am keeping an eye out for Bruno Mars at halftime though.

Have you ever pieced a mystery quilt? Its a lot of fun. I’ll be spending a day working on a new on Sat at the Jewish Community Center with members of the Great Lakes Heritage Quilt Guild. I’ve never been to this facility but I hear a lot of good things about it. It a full day of piecing with friends.

If you’ve never done a mystery quilt its well worth doing. At sign up I received the fabric requirements and some instruction on cutting to have ready when I arrive on Sat. I will be given instructions one step at a time & then the next after I complete the one before. I’ve several of these in the past and its really hard to know what the final blocks will look like until you are doing the last step in the block construction. Its a lot of fun to see all the different fabric choices people use.

The Jewish community center is a nice sized facility and we should have a lot of space to spread out and work. The fee for the day covers our breakfast and lunch, the room and the pattern. They will set up pressing stations and has tables available so we don’t have so much to bring.

Here is a photo of my fabrics before and after preparing them. I think there will be some kind of star but there is no way to know? We could be cross cutting these pieces again. I’ll post photos of the blocks when the mystery is over and hopefully I’ll get some quilt photos of some other quilt tops to share too.

Have a great day!

This is one of my least favorite things to do but it’s really one of the key things to keep my quilt flat and accurately pieced. The Disappearing 9 patch I’m working on does not have points to worry about so its fairly easy to square up the blocks.

Today I saw a video that was a quick refresher on how to square up a block both with and without points.  I want to share that link with you.  OnPoint Videos  They also have some other good videos you might enjoy seeing.

I do love refreshing on techniques and quite often there are new notions that help make the process easier.

Now I better get back to work. Next post will have a photo!

Judy made this large mans quilt full of fun prints of favorite things. The quilting design is Aqua Flame by Hermione Agee.  The thread it a dark grey. She chose Hobbs Poly-down batting to keep the quilt light weight but warm and to show quilting definition. What a fun bright quilt for a guy!

This is a cute simple nautical wallhanging by Kathy. The design is Carla Barretts Basic Swirl Flourish.